follow my leader

This week I watched two films about leaders, and in a week I've got a modern church history exam. This combination got me thinking...

This is England tells the story of 12-year-old misfit Shaun who finally finds acceptance from a skinhead gang in the north of England, at the beginning of the 80s. Apart from a trip down memory-lane (80s games, music, sweets, fashion) the story is about how the gang takes a turn for the worse when a charismatic ex-convict Combo turns up again after his stint in jail. Under his leadership, the young kids get mixed up in the National Front scene.

Combo isn't just nasty. He's jealous, disappointed, heart-broken, fatherless - in one sense, you can see straight through him. Yet through his bullying tirades he gains the support of some young kids who don't know much better, and they end up on the brink of a world of racist violence.

Bobby came to me highly recommended, and I pass the recommendation on. A ridiculously star-studded cast play 22 characters entwined in events surrounding the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, all staying in the same grand hotel. The characters are well-developed in a short space of time, each character giving insight into the different milieus and culture at the end of the sixties in America. Robert F. Kennedy plays himself in TV speeches and press coverage of the election campaign. What makes the story so tragic, is that you get the impression that he was a great man. In a day and age of vitriolic cynicism, this must sound incredibly naive, but the things he was saying, and the way he was saying them just seemed incredibly right. "America should a country known for its selflessness." That, I thought to myself, is leadership. And then this man gets gunned down.

Part of my modern church history module has included an analysis of “das Dritte Reich” and the way my college reacted. Sometimes in Christian circles a picture is painted that the “bad liberal” people follow the crowd, whereas the “faithful conservative” people swim against the current of the trends in society. However, the truth is far more complex. The front page of a “good, conservative” Christian Alcoholics Anonymous journal from the 1930s carried a full-size photograph of Hitler with the headline: “He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke…” and goes on to talk about why Christians should support the “Führer” who reads the bible and prays. Hitler talked privately with his close circle of supporters about his plans to eradicate the church… but he played the part and so most Christians thought, “Here is finally someone who stands up for traditional morals,” not recognising the direction of his home and foreign policy. "Here's a leader with Christian values - we should vote for him."

Choosing a leader is more complex than the headlines make it out to be. "One-issue" voting is temptingly simple, but is it wise? It makes you think: What will historians say about our society in 100 years time? Where are our blind spots? What do we casually ignore?

In this regard: God bless America!